The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-19
Mr.. and Mrs. Bowser.
From the Detroit Free Press


| pulled a lot of statements of account from
/ his pocket with great gravity of demeanor,
| and spreading them out on the centre-table
he said:
MRS. Bowser, do you see these"
81 do
"Do you know what they are"
"Why, they are the monthly accounts
from the grocer's."
ooh, they are! Well, l should say so!
| Do YOU know what this family has de-
voured, wasted and given to the Polacks in
( the last month";
Il know that we have been very economi-
cal"
"Do'you! The grand footing is S64, Mrs
! Bowser-over SIS per week for a family of
| four. and one of them baby and the other
| a hired girl with the dyspepsia! l am no
mser, but pronounce this an outrage"
But haven't ordered anything extra,
and I've tried to be very careful to buy
| close"
"Mrs Bowser, it's your poor buying and
Door management. You don't know any
more about running q house than l do of
boSsing q steamboat. Either that or else
grocerS are Swindling me, and | won't stand
! it. Hereafter I shall do all the buying"
gave the cook orders to tell HIM what
she wanted, and next morning Mr. Bowser
entered upon his duties. The first purchase
| he made was a bushel of potatoes from
peddler in front of the house. He gave
81 10, and told the man where to carry them.
| When he came home to dinner the cook had
to tell him:
II put that bushei of potatoes into three
pecSs, and then cut up the whole lot to get
good ones enough for dinner"
The first thing to come up from the gro
Gerry was n consignment of ten cans OF
pumpkin. This was followed by fifty pounds
of evaporated apples and one hundred dozen
clothes-pins As nothing further appeared
the cook boiled some potatoes, made a
pumpkin pie and stewed some of the ap-
pies. When we went out to dinner Mr.
Bowser looked around in establishment
"What does this mean" he finally de-
manded.
why, it's all you sent"
He couldn't gainsay that, and by and by
he explained that he had saved fully 81 80
on his purchases by buying in such quanti-
ties.
'You paid 10c. per can for pumpkin,
while get the lot for 7c.,n he went on.
Thirty cents isn't very much, but it is as
good to me as to the grocer"
Yes, but | bought about one can a
month. You have enough here to last us
three years.
But saved forty cents on the apples, -
he protested.
last six months, Mr.. Bowser. At that rate
/ you nave ldltl Ill "a SubplJ IOl b"O y Gus
There was look of terror i'll his eyes and
he dare not proceed to clothes pins, nor say
a word about the potatoes.
| went down with him next morning, and
as we halted in front of a grocery he called
out:
"Say, Green, a roast for dinner-two
quarts Strawberries and-yum-say a
head of cabbage
When we had driven away he said to me
"We were just eleven seconds in front of
that grocery. You'd come down here and
fool away half AN hour to give the same
order. You've got to be right up and down
business with these fellows"
When we came to sit down to dinner we
had roast pork and Strawberries and boiled
cabbage
Il want to know what this meansm ex-
claimed Mr.. Bowser, as he showed back
This is what you ordered dear, and it
didn't take but eleven seconds. You didn't
specify the sort of roast you wanted, and
YOU didn't tell the cook whether you wanted
the cabbage boiled, fried or baked You
are running the kitchen, you know"
He swallowed few mouthfuls, tried hard
to change the subject and after dinner he
went into the kitchen and said to the girl:
Hannah, want sweet cakes, tarts hot
biscuit, raspberries and Clipped beef for
supper ILL ,
'I'l send up everything as 1 go down"
Eyes, sir"
About mid-afternoon a grocers wagon
delivered pound of Cloves pound of Gin
namon and a beefsteak. When Mr. Bow
ser came home to supper the cook called
him into the kitchen and said:
"Did you bring the bakers bread, sirF'
"Why no, l told you we'd have hot bis
cult"
but I've no flour"
tSThen whV didn't Won saw SOIn
''The missus always asks me, and you
didn't say word The lard is also out"
'But the beefP'
81 can't chip a raw beefsteak, sir. They
probably misunderstood your order"
"And the tartsN
Il had nothing to make 'em of, and in
this country we don't make sweet cake of
cloves and cinnamon. Where's them
rasPberries"
IL forgot emp
Mr.. Bowser had the beefsteak and worked
away on the evaporated apples and rem
nant of the pumpkin pie. When we re-
tired to the sitting room Mr.. Bowser did
some hard thinking for awhile, and then
observed:
MRS. Bowser, you are a very poor
buyer"
81 presume So"
And very extravagant woman~
"Yes, dear"
'But, nevertheless, | cannot permit you
to shirk the responsibilities of a wife and
heipmeet. I've gone ahead for the last
three days and shown you that this house
can be run with half the trouble and ex-
pense you have been to, and now turn it
over to you again. | think you will accept
the lesson"
l did. / saw by the bills afterward that
it cost him almost Sl8 for the three days,
and we are holding most of the stuff yet for
a fall gift to some orphan asylum.
The Brand on Cain